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Secret police
Secret police (sometimes political police) are a police organization which operates in secrecy to maintain national security against internal threats to the state. Secret police forces are typically associated with totalitarian regimes, as they are often used to maintain the political power of the state rather than uphold the rule of law. Secret police are law enforcement organizations officially endowed with authority superior to civil police forces, operating outside the normal boundaries of the law, and they are often accountable only to the executive branch of the government. They operate entirely or partially in secrecy; i.e., most or all of their operations are obscure and hidden from the general public and from all government officials, except for the topmost executive officials[http://www.infoplease.com/ce6/society/A0861009.html The Nature of a Secret Police], Retrieved on October 29, 2007. Secret police organizations have often been used as an instrument of political repression. States where the secret police wield significant power are sometimes referred to as police states. Secret police differ from the domestic security agencies in modern liberal democracies, because domestic security agencies are generally subject to government regulation, reporting requirements, and other accountability measures. Despite such oversight, there still exists the possibility of domestic-security agencies acting unlawfully and taking on some characteristics of secret police. Which government agencies may be classed or characterised, in whole or part, as "secret police" is disputed by political scientists. Methods and history Secret police not only have the traditional police authority to arrest and detain, but in some cases they are given unsupervised control of the length of detention, assigned to implement punishments independent of the public judiciary, and allowed to administer those punishments without external review. The tactics of investigation and intimidation used by secret police enable them to accrue so much power that they usually operate with little or no practical restraintEncyclopaedia Britannica, 15th Edition, vol. 25, p. 965, © 2003, Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc. . Secret-police organizations employ internal spies and civilian informants to find protest leaders or dissidents, and they may also employ agents provocateurs to incite political opponents to perform illegal acts against the government, whereupon such opponents may be arrested[http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G1-21058927.html Arturo Bocchini and the Secret Political Police in Fascist Italy], Retrieved on October 29, 2007. Secret police may open mail, tap telephone lines, use various techniques to trick, blackmail, or coerce relatives or friends of a suspect into providing information. The secret police are renowned for raiding homes between midnight and dawn, to apprehend people suspected of dissent[http://www.mentalmayhem.net/newswire/2005/03/how_syrian_hack_1.html How Syrian Hackers are Outsurfing the Mukhabarat], Retrieved on October 29, 2007[http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1571/is_33_18/ai_91475068/pg_5 Symposium - Nonviolent Civilian Insurrection in Iraq], Retrieved on October 29, 2007[http://www.slate.com/id/2081185 Iraq’s Rebuke to the NRA], Retrieved on October 29, 2007. People apprehended by the secret police are often arbitrarily arrested and detained without due process. While in detention, arrestees may be tortured or subjected to inhumane treatment[http://web.amnesty.org/wire/May2007/Egypt Torture: Egypt’s Open Secret], Retrieved on October 29, 2007. Suspects may not receive a public trial, and instead may be convicted in a kangaroo court-style show trial, or by a secret tribunal. Secret police known to have used these approaches in history include the secret police of East Germany (the Ministry for State Security or Stasi) and Portugal (PIDE)R. J. Stove, The Unsleeping Eye: A Brief History of Secret Police and Their Victims, Encounter Books, San Francisco, © 2003 ISBN 1-893554-66-X. Secret police have been used by many types of governments. Secret police forces in dictatorships and totalitarian states usually use violence and acts of terror to suppress political opposition and dissent, and may use death squads to carry out assassinations and "disappearances". Although secret police normally do not exist in democratic states, there are different varieties of democracy and, in times of emergency or war, a democracy may lawfully grant its policing and security services additional or sweeping powers, which may be seen or construed as a secret police. Secret police in fiction The concept of secret police is also popular in fiction, usually portraying such an institution at its most extreme. A well-known example is the Thought Police from George Orwell's novel Nineteen Eighty-four, who used psychology and omnipresent surveillance to eliminate dissent. In the graphic novel V for Vendetta and the movie based on the novel, the secret police were used to capture and silence dissenters. The Public Security Section 9 from the Ghost in the Shell series uses information gathering, cybernetic communication, and hacking. The Civil Protection in Half Life 2 were notable for their use of intimidation and murder to keep citizens in line. In Return of the Pink Panther the Lugash secret police hunt down Sir Charles Lytton. See also *Death squad *Gestapo *High policing *Intelligence agency *KGB *List of intelligence agencies *List of secret police organizations *Mass surveillance *Law enforcement agency *Police *Reichstag Fire Decree *Secret service *Stalinism *Surveillance *Frumentarii *Agentes in rebus *Secret Court of 1920 References External links *High Policing: The Protection of National Security *MSNBC - Domestic spying vs. secret police *Proposal for a Privacy Protection Guideline on Secret Personal Data Gathering and Transborder Flows of Such Data in the Fight against Terrorism and Serious Crime by Marcel Stuessi Category:Law enforcement units Category:Political repression Category:Secrecy Category:National security Category:Secret police cs:Tajná policie de:Geheimpolizei es:Policía secreta he:משטרה חשאית id:Polisi rahasia it:Polizia segreta ja:秘密警察 no:Hemmelig politi pt:Polícia secreta sr:Тајна полиција fi:Salainen poliisi sv:Hemlig polis zh:秘密警察